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The latest Nielsens for NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Games confirm the severe down trend. While the network continues to insist it’s the time differential that’s costing them viewers, it didn’t need to be this way with everything on tape instead of live.

A bunch of us sports fans were sitting in Langan’s yesterday sipping Evians and watching Cuba play the U.S. in the baseball gold-medal game. We all knew the result from hours earlier and eventually got into talking about weightier topics, like who the hell do the Jets players think they are, second-guessing coach Al Groh. Never would have happened with Bill Parcells.

But the thing we all agreed on was that the slumping ratings are the network’s own damn fault. NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol‘s flip comment that he supposed they could have showed live events at 5 a.m. is absolute B.S. The billions the net has paid the corrupt IOC could have guaranteed that blue-ribbon events be aired live in prime time on the East Coast.

All that was required of NBC was that it ask for, say, the track and swimming finals to be scheduled between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sydney time, which is 8-11 p.m. New York time. (Sydney-siders wouldn’t have minded that – they like their sports in the daytime and even stay glued to cricket matches that last five days.)

But NBC, in its arrogance, decided that it could package the Games for (particularly) a female non-sporting audience and substitute sentimental tripe for the thrill of live events. I bleed for Bob Costas, a fine broadcaster, who has to helm this misguided bit of mass marketing.